North Korea vs The World

Foreign relations with North Korea have dominated media platforms of all kinds. From Twitter and Facebook to national news outlets like Fox News and CNN, the Korean peninsula has been a popular topic of discussion.

However, these tense interactions were not as direct in the beginning. On Feb. 11 North Korea launched its first ballistic missile of the Trump presidency. Similar missiles launched March 6, four of them landing in the Sea of Japan while the fifth failed to launch. In response to the threat towards Japan, South Korea and the United States sent missile defense ships in the area on March 16.

Bold statements of power were made on April 6 when North Korea fired another missile before President Trump was scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to thehill.com. Trump responded by ordering a missile strike on Syria during the meeting. Statements of military might continued on April 14 when the United States dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, better known as the Mother of all Bombs on ISIS in Afghanistan. Shortly after, Kim Jong Un displayed his country’s new missiles during an annual parade in their capital of Pyongyang.

More formal action was taken on June 2 when the United Nations unanimously voted to impose additional economic sanctions in an attempt to harm the nuclear and missile programs of the hostile state. Despite these efforts, North Korea fired four anti-ship missiles into the ocean on June 8. About a month later on July 4, North Korea shot their own special kind of firework, their first successful nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile test. Soon after, Trump pressured Jinping to express China’s influence over North Korea’s nuclear program at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany on July 8.

Worries of war were at a peak on August 8, when North Korea successfully developed and mounted a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile. North Korea then went on to threaten a missile strike on the U.S. territory of Guam. President Trump warned the hostile state of the ramifications of continuing to threaten the U.S..

“[North Korea] best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump said. “[Or it would be met with] fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

While this strike never happened, more stress followed suit when missiles were fired into the nearby ocean and later over the island of Japan. Tensions only rose higher when it was announced that North Korea’s development of a miniature hydrogen bomb was capable of fitting on an ICBM on September 3. The most recent news came on September 15, when North Korea fired another missile over U.S. ally Japan. North Korea then went on to say that the Japanese islands no longer needed to exist and also threatened to fire nuclear weapons on Japan, according to the newyorktimes.com.

North Korea does not seem to be changing their views on the United States and vice versa. The war of words seems to only become more intense and personal insults to Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump more frequent. Only time will tell if military action will be used on either side in the future.